vcbw - so far

well, i'm alive
and still making it to work every day
so vancouver craft beer week has not yet totally kicked my ass or any of my major organs!

opening night on friday was a really great event
they used the roundhouse to its utmost
new breweries were on one side, with the lone cider stall
lots of space in the middle for stage and oyster bar and mingling
then all the old stand-bys on the other side
it was packed, but not so full that it took too long to get a beer or from one side to the other
and there were oysters!
i made it to the yaletown for a pint after the event...
which may or may not have been a good idea!

saturday i attended the four winds open house out in the boonies
no really, its out somewhere that required bridges and tunnels to get to
but the beer was good,
we were greeted with a casked fir tip ipa sample,
growlers and bostons were already filled so no need to wait for yours,
the brewery was open for a tour or just wandering around and checking out all the shiny new equipment,
it was a really great open house / launch
kudos for pulling that off during the craziness that is vcbw
(i filled my boston with ipa)

sunday i went to the morning session of hoppapalooza
which lived up to my every expectation
of course
(with a little help from my friends i managed to sample all of the casks and all of the ipas... with a couple of ventures into the barleywines)
and then i went to the dix reunion at the whip
which i kind of remember... vaguely...
there are photos though, so i know i was there!
(i had derrick's ipa and a fat tug after the casks ran out)

last evening i attended joe wiebe's book launch at the yaletown brewpub
which was a whole schwack of fun
the place was packed, the three casks were drained within a couple of hours
iain hill introduced joe, joe was charming, everyone was smiling
(casks: r&b cucumber mint ale, granville island low alcohol esb, iain's passionfruit ipa
i am not going to admit to you just how many of those passionfruit ipas i had, thank the beer gods that the esb was only 3.6%...)

it has been an amazing week so far
now, i'm off to the railway for some cask!

i didn't always love beer - there was a time in the distant past where i just didn't have a taste for it. fortunately my taste buds changed just around the time folks started brewing really tasty beer. my love affair with beer began. slowly at first, eventually blowing itself up into my current obsession with all things beer. i really like drinking beer. i also enjoy reading about beer, talking about beer, thinking about beer and watching people brew beer.